Loyola Academy was founded as a Roman Catholic, Jesuit, college preparatory school for young men in 1909. The school was originally located in
the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, on the campus of
Loyola University Chicago's Dumbach Hall; it moved to the current Wilmette campus in 1957. Both Loyola University and its prep school adjunct, Loyola Academy, grew out of
St. Ignatius College Prep, a Roman Catholic, Jesuit college preparatory school in Chicago that was founded in 1870 as St. Ignatius College, with both university and preparatory programs for young men. While St. Ignatius transitioned to being solely a preparatory school and remained in the same location, Loyola Academy and University were established in Rogers Park. All three institutions were named after the Basque intellectual and a military officer in the army of a Duke,
St. Ignatius of Loyola, who founded the
Jesuits.
As a precondition to granting approval to move to the suburbs, the Archdiocese of Chicago required the Jesuits to stipulate that they would continue to serve the young Roman Catholic men of the city of Chicago. Consequently, Loyola Academy has had a significant representation of Chicago residents of various financial means, giving the school an economic diversity fairly unique in the Chicago area. This was achieved through the use of various scholarships and forms of financial aid.
Loyola Academy maintained the strict disciplinary and academic regimen seen in most of the exclusive American prep schools during the bulk of its history. Students were required to wear blazers and ties, maintain silence when moving between classes, attend weekly Mass on campus, address their teachers as either "sir" or "Father", and also maintain a demeanor befitting the Jesuit educational ideal of "Men for others."
One of Loyola's "sister schools" was Regina Dominican High School, an all-girls Academy located less than a mile away in Wilmette. Beginning in 1970, small groups of select Regina students began commuting to Loyola to take selected advanced science and computer science classes, as these classes were unavailable on their campus at the time.
The Jesuit presence has fallen off from what it once was, with some 40 priests teaching and working at the school in 1961, down to 11 out of roughly 200 staff members in 2007.[6] The priests left for a variety of reasons. Some left due to the
child abuse cases surrounding the Catholic church.[7]
Loyola Academy affiliated with
Saint Louise de Marillac High School, an all-girls high school from
Northfield, Illinois and became
co-educational in 1994. The affiliation was done for financial reasons. The President of Marillac was approached by Loyola to consider a co-ed option on the North Shore as requested by the Archdiocese.[8] About that same time, Loyola added on to their existing building. In 2003, Loyola Academy opened a new 60-acre (240,000 m2) campus in
Glenview, Illinois. The property, near the decommissioned
Glenview Naval Air Station (NAS Glenview), was purchased by Loyola in 2001[9] and now houses several athletic fields for lacrosse, baseball, softball, and soccer, a
cross country path, and a
wetland preserve area that has been used as a natural
laboratory for science classes.
While Loyola Academy is a Jesuit, Catholic school, it has always admitted non-Catholics seeking a Loyola education.
Academics
Loyola Academy offers a comprehensive
liberal artscurriculum with over 110 courses in
language arts,
fine arts (dance, music, theater,
visual arts, and
architecture),
foreign languages (Spanish, French, Latin,
Mandarin Chinese, and
Ancient Greek), mathematics,
physical education, science,
social studies, and
theology. (As it is a college-preparatory high school, it does not offer any true
vocational courses.) The school has two competitive honors programs (the Dumbach Scholars and the Clavius Scholars) and a plethora of students enrolled in
AP classes. Loyola also offers the O'Shaughnessy Program, which assists students who show the potential for success in college but may require smaller classes and extra help from teachers. Annually, about 99% of students are accepted by four-year
universities.
The school fields a
Certamen team and in 2005 six students received perfect scores on the National Latin Examination. Loyola is also very active in
forensics,
Scholastic Bowl, and
Science Olympiad competitions. In 2013, Loyola's scholastic bowl team placed third at both
NAQT HSNCT and
PACE NSC, the best performance of a team from Illinois at both national championship tournaments.[10][11]
Athletics
Loyola Academy offers 16 women's sports and 17 men's sports. Its varsity teams are called the Ramblers, which copied from the nickname of the varsity teams at
Loyola University. The school competes as a member of the
CCL.
The men's
lacrosse team won 11 State Titles and 11 runner ups with three straight championships with from 2002 to 2004, with its most recent in 2018.[12]
Prior to the IHSA Football Championships (1974), Loyola won the
Prep Bowl in 1965, 1966, and 1969. Loyola won the IHSA State Championship in football in 1993, 2015, 2018, 2022, and 2023 and was runners-up in 1992, 2011, 2013, 2016, and 2017. Former football coach
John Holecek led Ramblers to the state playoffs every year since 2006, including three of the last five Illinois State 8A Finals. In November 2011, the Loyola Academy football team lost to Bolingbrook in the class 8A Illinois State championship. On November 24, 2018 Loyola won the 2018 IHSA 8A Football Championship by beating Brother Rice High School 13–3. In 2022, Loyola won the IHSA Class 8A State Football Championship by beating undefeated
Lincoln-Way East High School 13–3, marking their fourth state championship win.[13] Holecek resigned after the championship and was succeeded by Beau Desherow.[14] Former
Northwestern Wildcats football head coach
Pat Fitzgerald joined the Ramblers' head coaching staff as a parent volunteer, with his middle son, Ryan, serving as the team's starting quarterback.[14] In 2023, Loyola Academy went undefeated and beat Lincoln-Way East High School again to capture their fifth state championship win.[15]
In 2014 Loyola won the Illinois State Girls Swimming Championship and defeated Fenwick 11-10 (OT) to capture the IHSA Boys Water Polo State Championship. The Ramblers were also State Water Polo Champions in 1978.
Loyola has had a storied history in
rowing. In 2017, the Boys' Junior 8+ won the SRAA National Championships.[16]
The girls lacrosse team won the 2023 IHSA state championship over Hinsdale Central.[17]
Notable alumni
Athletics
Jamie Baisley a former linebacker for the
Chicago Enforcers (XFL) and the
Rhein Fire (NFLE). He played at Loyola Academy from 1989 to 1992 and then played four years at Indiana University (1993–1996).[18][19]
Conor Dwyer is a swimmer who was a gold medalist in the 4*200 freestyle relay at the
2012 Summer Olympics as well as the gold medalist in the 4*200m freestyle and bronze medalist in the 200m freestyle in the
2016 Summer Olympics.[23]
^Leavitt, Irv (25 October 2007). "Alumni reflect on their days at Loyola Academy". Wilmette Life. Wilmette, Illinois: Pioneer Press. 40 in 1961 to 11 now
^Helfgot, Mike (22 October 2009).
"Prep football: No. 5 St. Rita at No. 10 Loyola". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 21 November 2009. The coach is John Holecek, a former Marian Catholic and University of Illinois star who played Kelly's middle linebacker position in the NFL from 1995 through 2002.